Open Educational Resources
What are OER course materials?

Educational content or materials that are available at no cost or low cost to the reader, student, or teacher and that are often openly licensed.

OERs can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes. OERs include courses, course materials, content modules or learning objects, collections, and journals. OERs also comprise tools for delivering education content such as software that supports the creation, delivery, use, and improvement of open learning content; searching and organizing of content; content and learning management systems; content development tools; and online learning communities.

The costs associated with the creation and maintenance of OERs are often covered by grants or other funds, which make it possible for the content to be free of charge for readers and users.

The Provost Office and the University's Student Government Board encourage and support the use and development of OER material at Pitt. For more detailed information on their efforts to increase OER usage at Pitt, please visit provost.pitt.edu/OER.

Open Educational Resources (OER) for your Course

As you plan your teaching, you might consider adopting or adapting Open Educational Resources (OER) for your course. OER are course materials, such as textbooks, workbooks, and assignments, that have been licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. Replacing an expensive textbook with OER will decrease the financial burden on your students. OER can also give you the opportunity to adapt your learning resources to the way you want to teach your subject matter, instead of the other way around.

In addition to OER, there are a wealth of other free educational resources available online. The distinction between these is that OER permit you to adapt and redistribute these resources, while other resources may only allow you to share them with your students as-is or direct your students to use them where they live on the internet. For example, many Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) allow free auditing, and YouTube videos are free to watch or embed in your Canvas course.

For all OER and free resources, you will want to carefully evaluate the quality of the resource as a learning tool, and the fit with your learning objectives before deciding to incorporate them into your course. There is a lot of great information on finding OER for use in your course in the ULS OER LibGuide. Contact the University Center for Teaching and Learning or the University Library System for more information and assistance.

If you do decide to use OER in your course, the University Store can post that information in their listings, help link students to the material from their website and (if available) may be able to give your students the option to purchase low-cost print versions of your OER material. OER information, as well as questions about how the store can support your OER usage, can be directed to John Burns ([email protected]), Course Materials buyer at the University Store.

The Office of the Provost has created the Nancy Tannery Grant for Open Educational Resources to encourage faculty to develop OER content and material for classroom use. Information about the grant and available support during the grant and creation process can be found here: Nancy Tannery Grant Information.

Where can I find OER materials that are ready to use?

The following is a list of OER platforms that are currently available for adoption.

If I am planning on using OER materials in my course, should I notify the University Store?
Yes. If you are using OER in your course(s), we will indicate it in our textbook listings and can help students locate the material.
Can the University Store help if my students want print copies of OER materials?

Yes. You can request that we investigate the option of providing a print version for your students. Some OER materials, such as Open Stax, have low-cost print versions available, and the University Store will stock them for interested students.

In some situations, it may be possible for the University Store to create a printed course reader from OER materials. As OER materials are copyright free, this can be an inexpensive option.